VAIRENGTE, April 9: US troops are being fed venomous vipers, dogs and monkeys as part of military exercises to sharpen skills in jungle combat in India's insurgency-torn northeastern state of Mizoram.

Some 100 Alaska-based US infantry soldiers and 120 local troops last weekend launched joint exercises codenamed "War Rehearsal" to learn what they called "low-intensity" combat at the Counter-Insurgency Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS). Lt Col David Alan Wisecarver, commanding the US contingent, said the US army planned to add more teeth to its unconventional combat units.

"The US army has already raised two such strike brigades and we form the elements of the third, which is being trained to be highly-mobile, digital and network-centric for rapid anti-terrorist strikes," Col Wisecarver said.

The CIJWS, set up in 1970, is one of the world's most respected anti-terrorist institutions with troops from 19 nations including Iraq and Afghanistan having being trained in counter-insurgency warfare here.

The games, being held in Mizoram's remote Vairengte forests, are scheduled to end on April 17. Brig B.K. Ponwar, CIJWS commander, said the rugged training included living off the land.

"The human body is capable of undergoing tremendous stress and strain and it is often not realised until put to test," Ponwar said besides a table loaded with snake, monkey and dog meat on which the soldiers feasted.

"Troops must live in all-weather terrain, eat and sleep like the guerrilla and strike as silently as the guerrilla," said an Indian trainer in CIWJS. Wisecarver said his men enjoyed the joint exercises in Mizoram's lush green jungles.

"Though the landscape may be reminiscent of Vietnam, we are enjoying our stay here," the US colonel said. Ponwar, meanwhile, said his school planned to upgrade its facilities and train soldiers to take on guerillas in places like occupied Kashmir.

"With the northeast on the threshold of eliminating terrorism, the CIJWS is now shifting its focus towards Jammu and Kashmir," he said. Local insurgency ebbed, especially in the worst-hit Assam, after New Delhi last December prodded neighbouring Bhutan to launch an all-out military offensive to crush elaborate hideouts the militants had set up in the Himalayan kingdom.

"The CIJWS is also going in for framing tactics to hunt down and confront terrorists groups carrying weapons of mass destruction...," Ponwar said, adding the school would be upgraded into a military college later this year.

The school was set up after Indian soldiers suffered heavy casualties at the hands of north eastern rebels who were adept at hit-and-run guerrilla strikes. More than 50,000 people have been killed in the insurgency in the northeastern region since 1947. -AFP